Sure, the Cavaliers had a nine-day layoff before disposing of the Toronto Raptors 115-84 in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference finals Tuesday, but James was clear that break wasn’t a vacation. Cleveland coach Tyronn Lue gave the team one day off. To make his point, James said “we didn’t rest” three times.

“We didn't have a game in front of cameras,” James said. “Our whole mindset was whenever our game was going to present itself; we was going to be ready to play our game and do it the same way we've been doing that all postseason.”

That is something worth talking about. Cleveland improved to 9-0 in the postseason with their most-impressive victory to date. That’s the first step in a series the heavily-favored Cavaliers are expected to win, and “rest” doesn’t appear to be a factor.

Neither is playing copycat for whoever comes out of the Western Conference, a narrative that caught on after the 3-point exhibition Cleveland put on during the semifinals against Atlanta. The Cavaliers hit 77 3-pointers against the Hawks.

On Tuesday, Cleveland mercilessly attacked the paint against Toronto. The Cavaliers hit a playoff-low seven three-pointers but shot a playoff-best .554 from the field. James had the playoff-shooting night of his career. Kyrie Irving couldn’t be stopped.

“As I keep telling you guys every single day, we're not a jump-shooting team,” James said. “You guys kept looking at me crazy about it. We're not a jump-shooting team. We're a balanced team, and whatever the game dictates, we're able to adjust to that.”

You could call the series now, or you could chalk the blowout up to Toronto coming off back-to-back seven-game series and short rest. Raptors coach Dwane Casey used a different phrase five times in his post-game press conference while also making his own point several times.

“I thought they were the fresher team, the quicker team tonight,” Casey said. “Again, that's to their credit, and again, it's one game. This series is not over by any means. We have another game in another night. Again, the score is embarrassing, but again, it's just one game.”

One game neither dooms the Raptors nor defines the Cavaliers, who are becoming a team that can beat opponents in multiple ways. They can shoot 3-pointers. They can dominate the glass — which they did 45-23 on Tuesday. They can blow a game open with a lineup that features James and backups Matthew Dellavedova, Channing Frye, Richard Jefferson and Iman Shumpert. That happened in the second quarter.

The Cavaliers aren’t embodying somebody else’s style. The Cavaliers are their own style, and it still runs through James. That’s led to nine playoff wins by an average of 12.7 points per game.

“This year we're just trusting the pass more, more ball movement, more pace, and I mean, it's nothing too different,” Lue said. “Now we're just kind of — we understand who we are as a team. I think defensively and offensively we understand who we are, who we want to play through, who we want to go through, and it's been easier for the guys.”

Easier for James, too. Irving leads Cleveland in the playoffs with 24.7 points per game. Kevin Love averages 18.3 points per game. The help is there.

Cleveland also erased another narrative — the one from the 2008-09 playoffs when the Cavs swept their first two series before losing to Orlando in six games in the Eastern Conference finals. That was the last time a James-led team lost in this round. Between Miami and Cleveland, James has won in his last five conference finals appearances.

So it’s just one game. Or maybe it’s just nine games.

“We have a goal, and our goal was not nine wins. It's just not my focus,” James said. “I've won nine games in the postseason before. I’ve won 14 games in the postseason before. It's not my goal, and as the leader of this team, I'm going to continue to make sure that these guys understand what our goal is.”

From there, James foreshadowed what’s yet to come, and perhaps the reason he’s not interested in talking about rest. He repeated a few things there, too.

“We will face some adversity,” James said. “We will, and we have to be able to handle that, which I think we’ll be ready for.”